Books and PT

Books serve multiple purposes in pediatric development and therapy. Not only for the language exposure and the quality snuggles reading time provides, but books can also be incorporated in therapy by acting out certain things in a book, working on attention to task and following directions while completing an activity, or it can be a reward at the end of the session. There are tons of great books out there, and sometimes, the huge amount can be overwhelming. So here’s a list of my top favorite books and series that I love.

​Priddy Baby Books – Theses books are amazing at exposing our children to a lot of vocabulary. One thing I really love is that the pages are broken down into categories. It really helps to introduce the concept of categories to little ones. Additionally, this book uses real pictures! This is so great as it helps our children carry over the names of the pictures into real life everyday items/objects. 

Any nursery rhyme book – These are great as they help children put a visual picture to songs that are easily remembered. Nursery rhymes have many benefits for preschool development, skills such as discriminating between sounds and increasing vocabulary. They’re also great at introducing patterns, sequencing, and counting. (Ex. Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald).

Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney – This series is great as it lets you accompany little llama on some very fun daily events like the first day of school and bedtime. Great for prepping little ones for events that can otherwise be overwhelming. It also expresses a lot of emotions that kids have to deal with.

Usborne Books and More – Touchy Feely Books – These books are great for little ones to encourage understanding of different textures and description words. We also love searching for the little duck hidden on each page. It makes for some very fun reading times. 

Tom Fletcher “There’s a ___ in your book” – These books are great because they are interactive and allow the reader to follow along and take part in the story.

Eric Carle – “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?” has to be the most read book in our house. Any of the Eric Carle books are great because they have engaging pictures and eye catching stories.

Laura Numeroff Mouse board books – These are a great option that we love for holidays. There are a lot of holiday specific mouse books and most of them come in a board book option for durability. We also love the repetitive sequence of the stories it makes it easier for our kiddos to read the books with us if they can predict how the next page is going to go. 

Press Here by Hervé Tullet – This book is also interactive and super engaging for littles. Each page has a direction to follow and allows young readers to get involved in the book.